PREFACE
In 1909, a union checklist of books and pamphlets relating to the Pacific Northwest was published by the Washington State Library. That list represented the combined resources of thirteen representative libraries and was cooperatively prepared.
The present list is based directly upon the former edition and is similar to it in all essential features. It includes descriptive material relating to the "history of the region lying north of California and west of the Rocky Mountains, comprising the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana, together with British Columbia, Alaska and the Yukon. The word history has been used in its broadest sense including a wide range of literature bearing upon the region.
The following classes of material have been excluded:
- Manuscripts.
- State documents, because listed in Bowker and the Monthly List of State Publications.
- Federal documents, for which there are government indexes also the Subject Index compiled by Katharine. B. Judson. Exception to the rule has been made in the case of some few state and federal documents of rarity and importance.
- Periodicals published in the region, except those devoted mainly or wholly to history. Serials, however, as year-books and. publications of societies have been included as a part of the institutional history of the Pacific Northwest.
- Maps, except those independently issued and bound in book form.
City documents have been largely omitted on the assumption that each city library will have specialized in its own local publications. Directories have been omitted if published after 1900. Reprints and excerpts from magazines, when of historical importance, have been included. The checklist is of date January 1, 1920.
Of the thirteen libraries represented in the first edition, the following three I have withdrawn: Montana State Library, the Library of Pacific University, and the Library of Washington State College. Unique items from these libraries, however, are retained in the present edition. The new edition is greatly strengthened by the cooperation of the following additional libraries: University of British Columbia Library, Library of the Oregon Historical Society, Oregon State Library, and the public libraries of Boise, Idaho, and Tacoma, Washington.
The edition of 1909 was intended primarily as a librarian's handbook for use in a cooperative development of library resources. How well it served that purpose may be judged from the present survey disclosing more than twice the number of distinct items and a still greater increase in the total number of volumes reported.
